The Douglas County School Board may ask voters to end its collective bargaining agreement with the teacher union and permanently break other ties between district and union.

During a Tuesday board meeting, members discussed three potential questions for the November general election ballot that union officials said are further evidence of the deteriorating relationship between union and district.

Those tentative questions are:

• Should the district be prohibited from engaging in collective bargaining with the union?

• Should the district be prohibited from using public funding for the compensation of union leaders?

• Should the district be prohibited from collecting union dues from employee paychecks on the union's behalf?

"Instead of paying the high-dollar salaries of the union executives and a host of other union expenses, we ought to be focusing on restoring our focus on the classroom, both financially and pedagogically," board member Craig Richardson said. "I suggest that we consider at the next meeting ballot language that would prohibit the district from ever funding with taxpayer dollars union salaries and public pension benefits going forward."

Richardson called the current collective bargaining system "old fashioned" and said it leads to an unending, yearly conversation with the union concerning money.

Union members said the move by the board is nothing more than a power grab; hurting teachers, and, ultimately, students' education.

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"Members of this board don't believe rules or laws apply to them," said Brenda Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers.

Smith said the board is attempting to limit the power of future members, binding the district to its current policies and practices.

Those practices include keeping the union from being able to canvas on school grounds, communicate independently with members and not collect union dues from teacher pay checks.

Currently, no collective bargaining agreement exists as the union and board failed to agree to terms in June, which is when the prior contract expired.

The two sides remained apart on issues of a salary increase, a pay-for-performance structure and the district's desire to remove the union's status as the exclusive bargaining unit representing the teachers.

Board president John Carson said the questions were appropriate for the ballot when contemplating the future of district collective bargaining.

"We need to consider asking the voters whether we have approached this properly," Carson said. "Some people feel we have not and I think maybe the voters should be asked to weigh in on it."

Smith said the union is looking into the legality of the proposal.

"We've never even heard of a referendum vote on a public issue from a school board before, anywhere," she said.

The school board has until Sept. 7 to decide if any of the questions will be placed on the Nov. 6 ballot.

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